Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

First Friday of the Month

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 25 Serious Faults

Mass: Gn 23:1-4, 19; 24:1-8, 62-67; Resp Ps 106; Mt 9:9-13

All peoples clap your hands. Cry to God with shouts of joy!

HEART OF JESUS, SOURCE OF ALL CONSOLATION,

HAVE MERCY ON US. 

In a Vatican media interview with Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who was in Rome recently for the celebration of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, His Eminence Emmanuel said something that I continue to reflect on. I include it here for your reflection and also because it relates in some ways to Jesus' simple call to Matthew in today's Gospel: Follow me (Mt 9:13). Maybe we need to not think so much about it and just respond more like Matthew did, that is to get up and follow Jesus.

Announcing the Gospel in the world is not a matter of strategy. I fear we are thinking more about the survival of Christianity than about sharing the good news of the Risen Christ.

Today's photo: A burst of beauty in my cousin's yard in Windsor, CA, what she likes to call "firecracker plants" as they always appear in time for the Fourth of July. Officially, these lovely flowers are called Agapanthus, or a neighbor said she always called them Lily of the Nile. May God be praised. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Saints: Saint Etheldreda (-679); Saint Thomas Garnet (1575-1607)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 18:7-11

Mass: Gn 15:1-12, 17-18; Resp Ps 105; Mt 7:15-20

Glory in God's holy name.

REMAIN IN ME, AS I REMAIN IN YOU, SAYS THE LORD;

WHOEVER REMAINS IN ME WILL BEAR MUCH FRUIT.

ALLELUIA.

(Gospel versicle, Mass)

By their fruits you will know them (Mt 7:20), says the Lord. 

You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement who is not given to spiritual reading, and to him who neglects it, the fact will soon be observed in his progress.

(Saint Athanasius, 296-373)

Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.

(Saint Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226)

I feel a longing and a need to be a saint. I did not know it was so easy to be one, but now I see that one can be holy and happy too. I feel I simply must be a saint.

(Saint Dominic Savio, 1842-1857)

You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

(Saint Therese of Lisieux, 1873-1897)

The path of evangelization does not always depend on our will and plans, but requires a willingness to allow ourselves to be shaped and to follow other paths that were not foreseen.

(Pope Francis, General Audience, June 23, 2021)

SAINT ETHELDREDA,

SAINT THOMAS GARNET,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: From a home in Garberville, CA, one I walk past when I am in town. I like to see what kind of beauty grows there. The colors here I find especially appealing.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Feast of Saint Thomas

Readings of the day: RB 26 Unlawful Association with the Excommunicated

Mass: Ep 2:19-22; Resp Ps 117; Jn 20:24-29

My Lord and my God!

Yet another favorite painting of mine is Caravaggio’s Doubting of St Thomas. I think if I were to put my finger in Christ’s side as did Thomas, I would have wept. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. St Thomas, pray for us. 

We receive God’s graces to share them with others.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, July 3, 2018)

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: RB 7:31-33

Mass: Zp 3:14-18a or Rm 12:9-16; Resp Ps (Is 12); Lk 1:39-53

 

Visitation Church, Ein Kerim, Jerusalem

Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town in Judah,

where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

What follows is an excerpt from this morning’s reading at Vigils. From an unpublished text by Christian de Chergé, OCSO (1927-1996), one of the seven Trappist monks killed in Algeria in 1996: 

I imagine well that we are in the same situation as Mary who is going and visiting her cousin Elizabeth; she bears in her a living secret which is the one we can carry ourselves: a living good news. She received it from an angel. It is her secret and it is the secret of God, too. And she does not know really how to reveal this secret. Is she going to say something to Elizabeth? Can she say it? How to say it How to do it? Does she have to keep it hidden?

It is the same for our Church who bears in her a good news. And our Church, it is each of us, and we come a little like Mary, at first to help—it was her first ambition…but also bearing this good news. How will we tell this good news?

COME AND HEAR, ALL WHO FEAR GOD;

I WILL TELL WHAT THE LORD DID FOR MY SOUL.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

MARY REMAINED WITH HER ABOUT THREE MONTHS AND

THEN RETURNED TO HER HOME.

Saturday within the Octave of Easter

First Saturday of the Month

Readings of the day: RB 55:1-14 Clothing and Footwear for the Community

Mass: Ac 4:13-21; Resp Ps 118; Mk 16:9-15

THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE;

LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD.

ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA.

They recognized them as companions of Jesus.

Do others recognize us as companions of Jesus?

Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

How are we doing?

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR US NOT TO SPEAK

ABOUT WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD.

I SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.

(Resp Ps 118)

Like the Good Samaritan,

let us take care of those who are sick and suffering!

(Pope Francis, Twitter, April 7, 2018, World Health Day)